Crash barrier for aircraft carriers



April 1954 J. J. HOSPERS CRASH BARRIER FOR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS Filed Sept. 20, 1950 IN V EN TOR.

Hos 6 :4L MZZ/ W Patented Apr. 13, 1954 I 2,675,197 CRASH BARRIER FOR AIRGR-AFT CARRIERS John'J. Hospers, Dallas, Tex., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Chance Vought Aircraft, Incorporated, a corporation of Delaware Application September 20, 1950; Serial No. 185,808

7 Claims. (Cl. 244-110) This invention relates to an aircraft barrier device suitable for use as a permanent installa tion on aircraft carriers. It may be used alone or positioned forwardly of the known arresting gear as to conform to the contour of the landing plane throughout the period of contact.

These and other objects of invention will be manifest from a consideration of the following cables for situations where the airplane misses description, claims and drawings in which: these cables in a landing operation. Fig. 1 is a schematic fragmentary view of a More particularly, the invention is directed to flight deck of an aircraft carrier and a two main one or more separate barriers placed in parallel barrier unit and subsidiary unit constructed in relationship and each comprised of a heavy grill accordance with the present invention. formed from strong webbing such aswoven fibre- 10 Fig. 2 is a detailed view of a portion of the glass or synthetic leather suchas fabrikoid mawebbing, the mounting posts, and the ply shock terial. These webbings may approximate 12 inches absorbers positioned at the ends of: the webbing. in width and are held in place at each end by Referring to Fig. 1 in which an aircraft carseveral shock absorbers composed of triple thickrier flight deck I!) has mounted on one end a ness fibreglass or fabrikoid swivelly attached to 15 series of conventional arrestor cables such as It mounting posts. and auxiliary arresting units l3, l4, and l 5 which The mounting post may be pivoted at one end will stop and absorb the impact of an aircraft to the deck structure so as to lay flush with the which has missed the conventional arrestor cadeck when not in use. When the mounting or bles and so pr v nt d m e t other p n on carrier posts are erect as shown additional piv 0 passage f the lending plane 01? t flight kotal movement is resisted by a number of re- As will be seen, the first barrier cable will entractable cables connected to separate hydraulic gag t front W e l St t. a d On 01 more pistons located in thearresting gear room beof the webs will contact the nose and subselow. The postsmay be caused to maintain their qnently the Wings in t e ma Shown. Addierect position by counter weighting, springs, or tional barriers similar to M and I5 may be used, other convenient means not shown, but two are suflicient to illustrate the general The strips of webbing may be joined as by pat- Operation of the at o tern sewin at the inters ti n r by ewing The structure of the barriers l4 and I5 is idencombined with adhesives with the result that a tioal, each comprising a p f pri h s I6, pivsubstantially permanent, readily constructed and otelly mounted to rise Out h fl ht deck I yielding shock absorber is provided. The defor use. The up i ts 0 mounti posts m y be vices are especially suitable for aircraft of the jet- Constructed, acted p y means o w propelled type where no propellers are involved. to prevent them from being drawn ow y t e A lower arresting cable may be positioned imme- We ght of cables ll, 18, I9, and 20. These cables diately forwardly of the grill barriers so as to 5 pass 0V9! rollers 0n p ys 2 23, and 24 and engage the nose wheel strut as will be more are Joined t0 hydraulic p o u s fully described, 28, and 29 in any convenient manner, known An object of invention i t provide a ef per so, so that additional movement of the mountfective 'barrier for aircraft. 7 i posts It will be resisted by hydraulic fluid or Another object i t provide Strong yielding 4 its equivalent and thus absorb the impact shock. barrier, the control portion of which is composed The cables are secured to the uprights as y o a heavy Webbing material suitably secured U bolts, 30, 3|, 32, and 33 attached to the upto form a, ll, rights. The grill may be considered as having Another object is to provide a series of sep three n parts, a Central portion 35 m d by arate coacting barriers arranged in parallel re- Sewing Otherwise Securing together s of loti n, woven or otherwise fabricated material such as Another object i t provide yielding fibreglass or synthetic materials such as artifirier which wi11 sequentially engage djfier nt plane cial leather or fabrikoid, shock absorber portions parts and which will exert the greater forces on 37 of Several plies 0f the Same te ial or difplane parts t Suited t withstand it ferent material than the web, and strap or metal Another object is to provide a b upport; connections pivotally fastened to both mountwhich is hydraulically controlled to reduce ims posts and to the shock bs be portions 31 pact shock to the plane. as shown at 38, 39, 4 43, 44, and 45 Another object is to provide a barrier which (Fig. 2). is swlvelly connected to supporting uprights so The arrestor unit I3 has a cable 48 joined to hydraulic piston 41 and its component parts operate similarly to the structure above described in detail. Its cable 46 is sufficiently elevated to engage the forward strut of jet aircraft 50 in the manner shown.

As will be seen from the above, an aircraft may miss the usual arresting gear ca'bles such as l2 and will continue along the deck Where the first barrier cable will engage the nose wheel strut; the nose, and then the wings of the airplane would next contact the first main barrier webbing; the second and possibly other barrier grills will take some of the impact but are mainly of benefit as safety nets in the event of L-failure of the first barrier grill. The main shock loads are preferably taken by the absorber 31 at the ends of the webbing grill and by the hydraulic shock absorbers through the cables l1, 18, I9, and 20 attached to the mounting posts.

The plane 58 will usually be provided with a hook such as 5i for engagement with the conventional arresting cables. It may be used to engage a manually operated book (not shown) to withdraw the aircraft from the barrier after it has stopped.

A webbing constructed as shown may conveniently be about 8 feet high which height can 01' course be varied to suit a particular condition. It will be noted that the grill portion is distorted by the plane impact to effectively pocket the contacting plane parts in a manner which will distribute the impact force and thus re duce to a minimum the danger of structural failures to the aircraft on the unit.

The shock absorbers .31, being heavier than the grill, more nearly retain their original shape and because of the pivotal action and elongation induced by the impact automatically adjust them selves to the requirements of the particular occasion. These shock absorbers are connected to individual webs which may be approximately 12 inches wide and spaced 18 inches apart. It will be seen that this end construction contributes to the deformability of the wide webbed grill under conditions of use. It is also clear that rods may be substituted for the cables ii, l8, l9, 2t, and serve as piston rods. It is not essential to the broad concept of the invention that the mounting posts be pivotally moveable into a position ilush with the flight deck.

The present improvements have been described in connection with the illustrated embodiment. It is not designed to be limited to such embodiment but rather only by the broad scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment or" any royalties thereon or therefor.

What is claimed is:

l. A barrier comp-rising pivotally mounted supill 4 porting posts, a deformable web formed grill suspended vertically between said posts, said grill having a plurality of vertically spaced webs forming its free ends, vertically spaced shock absorbing means secured to each of said spaced webs and means for swivelly connecting said shock absorbing means individually to the supporting posts, and means for yieldingly resisting movement of said supporting posts from shock impact on the said grill.

2. The combination of claim 1 further defined by said grill being formed of equally spaced horizontal and vertical Web strips sewn together at their mtersections.

3. The combination of claim 1 further defined by said grill and said shock absorbing means being formed of synthetic fiber material.

4. The combination of claim 1 further defined by said last mentioned means comprising vertically spaced cables ea-ch attached at one end to its respective supporting post and at the other end to hydraulic piston means.

5. A barrier comprising pivotally mounted supporting posts, a deformable web formed grill suspended vertically between said posts, said grill having a plurality of vertically spaced webs forming its free ends, vertically spaced shock absorbing means secured to each of said spaced webs and means for swivelly connecting said shock absorbing means individually to the supporting posts, means for yieldingly resisting movement of said supporting posts from shock impact on the said grill, supplemental posts spaced forwardly of and parallel to said mounting posts, and a deformable cable suspended between said supplemental posts at a height intermediate the distance between the top and bottom of said grill.

6. The combination of claim 5 further defined by said supplemental posts having means attached thereto for yieldingly resisting movement of said supplemental posts from shock impact on the said cable.

7. The combination of claim 2 further defined by supplemental posts spaced forwardly of and parallel to said mounting posts, and a deformable cable suspended between said s pplemental posts at a height intermediate the distance between the top and bottom of said grill.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,865,297 Bateman June 28, 1932 2,440,574 Cotton Apr. 27, 1948 2,450,328 Cotton Sept. 28, 1948 2,465,936 Schultz Mar. 29, 1949 2,475,588 Bierman July 12, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 573,440 Great Britain June 28, 1946 

